Broadcast networks for television and radio typically insert advertisements into a broadcast feed for presentation to all the consumers. Information, such as how many consumers experienced the advertisement; which end users experienced the advertisement; and which end users responded to the advertisement, typically is not available. In addition, conventional broadcast advertisements are aired without detailed contextual information and do not provide means for the consumer to supply personal information, request additional information, or facilitate impulse responses to the advertisements.
In contrast, interactive networks such as the internet are more amenable to the selective and precise distribution of media content, including advertisements. Typical internet advertisements take the form of a still image (e.g., a banner ad) and/or a hyperlink presented on a static web page. These advertisements are typically sold based on the number of impressions, the number of click-throughs, customer satisfaction surveys, advertising revenue, or downstream purchases or activity.
While the Internet has become a widespread means of communicating data, it is now becoming a primary means of communicating video content globally. Most web pages include text, graphics, and other non-video data. Video files and some audio files tend to be larger than other types of files. The availability of broadband allows users to transmit and receive larger files in acceptable time frames. Thus, the adoption of broadband, at least in part, has led to the increase in the amount of video and audio data communicated over the Internet.
It would be desirable to offer and supply media content (e.g., textual, graphic, video, and/or audio content including advertisements) with portions of content, such as web pages, that the user is viewing. In addition, it would be desirable to select the content based on the end user's viewing context. More specifically, there is a need for a system and method for selecting portions of content, such as keywords on a web page, to be associated with media content and for selecting media content in manner to provide the highest media experience. For example, it would be desirable to select the keywords and media content based on the viewing context of the end user such as, for example, the content (e.g., words) the user is viewing, the location of the user, the web page, and the local time at the user's location.
One of the challenges in selecting media content is that there are so many works of media content from which to select. The quantity of web addresses, textual content, videos, and advertisements number in the billions as of this writing. Consequently, selecting media content from the large amount of selectable media in a manner that maximizes the value to the media provider (e.g., an advertiser) is very challenging. For example, selecting one or more keywords on a web page to be highlighted and selecting an associated content set comprising a video, advertisement(s), and a video channel to be presented to the end user in a manner that provides enhanced value and that is scalable for millions of dynamic web pages is very challenging.
These challenges and others may be overcome by some of the embodiments of the present invention.